Sermon from 19th October 2008
Today's sermon is from our newly ordained minister, Rev. Gill Tayleur, and is based on the reading from Matthew 22: 15-22
“Have you stopped beating your wife?!” (or let’s say your spouse)
“Have you stopped beating your spouse?!”
Well, have you, yes or no?...
It’s a great trick question!
If you say yes, it sounds like you have stopped, but you used to beat her.
If you say no, it sounds like you still do beat her. A trick question.
Jesus faced a trick question in the passage I’ve just read from Matthew’s gospel.
“Is it right to pay taxes to Caesar or not?” was a very clever trick question designed to trap Jesus.
The people asking it thought they’d force Jesus to say something that was either treasonous (to Caesar)
or offensive (to Jews).
Either way would get him killed.
Yes or no, it was lose lose.
But before we look more closely at this trap, let me give a little background about paying taxes to Caesar.
Remember the Romans had invaded Palestine about 90 years before.
First they had their own man in as ruler, then later used Herod as a local king. As occupying forces the Romans were hated. That’s not surprising.
Neither is the fact that the taxes they imposed were hated.
The Jews hated paying their taxes because they were a reminder and symbol that they were oppressed by Rome, by the Roman Emperor Caesar.
They also hated the tax because it went straight into Caesar’s own coffers. Some of it paid for pagan temples and some to the decadent lifestyle of the Roman aristocracy.
So the Jews hated what their tax would be spent on.
The Jewish people also hated this tax because they had to pay it with a particular Roman coin.
These coins had two very offensive things on them: a picture of Caesar’s head and an inscription.
Jews weren’t allowed to put pictures of people, human faces, on their coins, but of course Caesar had his image stamped on his coin.
And the inscription read “Tiberius Caesar, son of the divine Augustus”.
The coin described the Emperor Caesar as the son of a god!
These coins were so offensive to the Jews that for normal everyday money, other coins were minted.
Other coins without the image or inscription, out of deference to how the Jews felt about them.
But they had to use these coins with the image and inscription, for paying their direct tax to Caesar.
(There were all sorts of taxes to be paid on all sorts of things, but just the direct tax for Caesar needed these special coins with his head and the inscription. So the people had to exchange their ordinary coins for the special ones, and often got ripped off as they did so. Another reason for hating this tax.)
So the Jewish people truly loathed this tax.
But there was a group of them who hated it even more than the rest.
The Pharisees. The Pharisees were an ultra religious group, who said the only king they recognised was God.
And they vehemently opposed Roman occupation and Caesar’s rule.
Most of them opposed Jesus too, as he didn’t obey the minutiae of the Jewish laws like they did.
And because Jesus associated with notoriously bad people.
So the Pharisees didn’t like Jesus. At least that’s what we might have said about them a week or so before the events we’re looking at today. At this stage in the story, now, we might say they hated Jesus!
A few days ago, Jesus had come into Jerusalem riding on a donkey to the acclaim of the crowd – Palm Sunday. In a few days time, he was going to be crucified – Good Friday.
But we’re in the days in between, during which Jesus has upset the Pharisees and other religious leaders repeatedly. He has cleared the temple, saying it was corrupt. He has told parables against them, showing them up for not accepting him as the Messiah sent by God. At the end of the previous chapter of Matthew, we read the chief priests and Pharisees looked for a way to arrest him – they wanted him out of the way!
But they couldn’t because the crowd thought he was a prophet. The crowd loved him.
The Pharisees couldn’t arrest him, so they had another idea: a trick question that would be a trap. A trick question that meant if he gave one answer they could have him arrested for treason. And if he gave the other answer the crowd would turn on him. Either way they’d get rid of him for good. A trap.
Just as the Pharisees plotted to get rid of Jesus, so did the Herodians. The Herodians were a political party who supported Herod’s rule under Rome. They hated Jesus because they were afraid of the political instability he might bring. On Palm Sunday the crowds had been stirred up, thinking he was going to start a revolution to overthrow the Roman occupation. If there was any such trouble, Rome would clamp down on it harshly, and the stake the Herodians had in Herod’s rule, would be gone. Alternatively, if it turned out that Jesus did have the power to overthrow Roman rule, then again, their own power base would go. So the Herodians wanted to get rid of Jesus, like the Pharisees did.
Herodians and Pharisees were usually enemies, but on this occasion they got together to trap Jesus.
So they dreamed up their trick question. They asked, “Is it right to pay taxes to Caesar or not?” This was indeed a trick question. If Jesus said yes, it was right to pay taxes to Caesar, the Pharisees would say he was opposed to God, the only true king. And the crowd would be up in arms, probably stone him, for they hated paying the tax. If Jesus said no it wasn’t right to pay taxes to Caesar, the Herodians would have him charged for rebellion. There had been Jews who’d revolted against Roman rule and taxes before, and faced the death penalty. Saying no would be very dangerous indeed. So Jesus would be in big trouble whatever he said, yes or no. Lose lose. A very clever trick question.
So what does Jesus do? First he lets them know he sees through -their cunning plan. “You hypocrites! Why are you trying to trap me?” He sees straight through them to their motives, and lets them know it. The Pharisees weren’t really motivated by love for God’s laws. The Herodians weren’t really motivated by love of Rome’s justice. They just wanted to trap Jesus.
Then he asks them to show him the coin they use for paying the tax. Which they do. I quote Tom Wright’s description of what happens next:
Jesus takes the coin from them, like someone being handed a dead rat. He looks at it with utter distaste.
”Whose is this... image? And who is it who gives himself an inscription like that?” He’s already shown what he thinks of Caesar, but he hasn’t said anything that could get him into trouble. He has turned the question around, and is ready to throw it back at them.
“Caesar’s” they reply. “Give to Caesar what is Caesar’s and to God what is God’s.” He counters their challenge with a sharp challenge in return. Were they compromised? Had they really given their full allegiance to God? He has outwitted them and they know it. They slink off.
“Give to Caesar what is Caesar’s and to God what is God’s.”
The word translated “give” here, is really more of a “give back” or “give what is owed”. It’s the word used for paying a bill or settling a debt.
So what did Jesus think was owed to Caesar? And what to God?
What did Jesus think was owed to Caesar? Well he recognised that they, and we have a responsibility to give to those who govern, what they legitimately ask for. Responsibility to obey the laws, to pay taxes for the benefits and services we receive. We’re to complete our tax returns honestly, to fulfil our responsibilities as citizens. Our allegiance to God includes our allegiance to the state. They’re not in opposition to one another.
What did Jesus think was owed to God? Later in this very chapter in Matthew, in verse 37, Jesus said to love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul and with all your mind. In other words, love God in every way we can, to the full, in every part of our lives. There’s no separation between the spiritual and the non-spiritual. Remember the reading we had last week, about Jesus healing on the Sabbath? He wouldn’t let doing God’s work be limited in the ways the religious leaders wanted. He wouldn’t let them try to keep God in a box. No, Jesus made it clear that God’s in charge of everything. He’s in charge of ALL of our lives.
So the question is, is He? Is God in charge of every aspect of our lives?...
Is he in charge of our jobs? Of what work we do, and how we do it? Whether we work for a company, or someone else, are self employed, or work at keeping our home or family running. Are we honest at work? Do we work hard, do our best? Are we a pleasure to work with? What is there in our working life that needs to be brought under God’s control?...
Is God in charge of our relationships? Are there relationships where we habitually lose our temper, get violent, or take advantage, or lack humility or compassion?... Are our sexual relationships under God’s control, or are we doing the wrong things with the wrong people, or with pornography? What is there in our relationships that needs to be brought under God’s control?...
Is God in charge of our time? Do we resent the demands other people make on our time? How little time we have to ourselves or to relax? Or maybe the opposite: do we waste too much time on our own pleasure, rather selfishly? Maybe we think we deserve it – back to Cameron’s sermon of two weeks ago about wrongly thinking we have ‘entitlements’ before God. We don’t. What is there in how we spend our time that needs to be brought under God’s control?...
Is God in charge of our money? Are we generous givers? Or do we spend too much on ourselves? Money is a big issue right now, isn’t it with the financial crisis looking to affect all of us in one way or another, bigger bills to pay and maybe worse. But is God in charge of how we spend or save or give away money? What is there in how we spend our money that needs to be brought under his control?...
Give to Caesar what is Caesar’s, and God what is God’s. ALL of lives need to be brought under God’s control. A few days after this episode with the Roman coin, Jesus was killed. He gave up his life, for us. And we’re about to celebrate, yes celebrate! in Holy Communion, the fact that by his death on the cross, we are forgiven. He literally gave everything for us, and so we owe him everything. Our lives, our jobs, our relationships, our time, our money, our homes, literally everything!
We can’t fool or trick God any more than the Pharisees and Herodians could trick Jesus. He knew their real motives, and God knows ours. God knows exactly what we’re up to. He knows where he’s in charge and where he’s not. And his forgiveness, his grace, and his love are ready and waiting, available, to welcome us as we come and bring our whole lives under his control. So shall we do that?
Then let’s pray...
“Have you stopped beating your wife?!” (or let’s say your spouse)
“Have you stopped beating your spouse?!”
Well, have you, yes or no?...
It’s a great trick question!
If you say yes, it sounds like you have stopped, but you used to beat her.
If you say no, it sounds like you still do beat her. A trick question.
Jesus faced a trick question in the passage I’ve just read from Matthew’s gospel.
“Is it right to pay taxes to Caesar or not?” was a very clever trick question designed to trap Jesus.
The people asking it thought they’d force Jesus to say something that was either treasonous (to Caesar)
or offensive (to Jews).
Either way would get him killed.
Yes or no, it was lose lose.
But before we look more closely at this trap, let me give a little background about paying taxes to Caesar.
Remember the Romans had invaded Palestine about 90 years before.
First they had their own man in as ruler, then later used Herod as a local king. As occupying forces the Romans were hated. That’s not surprising.
Neither is the fact that the taxes they imposed were hated.
The Jews hated paying their taxes because they were a reminder and symbol that they were oppressed by Rome, by the Roman Emperor Caesar.
They also hated the tax because it went straight into Caesar’s own coffers. Some of it paid for pagan temples and some to the decadent lifestyle of the Roman aristocracy.
So the Jews hated what their tax would be spent on.
The Jewish people also hated this tax because they had to pay it with a particular Roman coin.
These coins had two very offensive things on them: a picture of Caesar’s head and an inscription.
Jews weren’t allowed to put pictures of people, human faces, on their coins, but of course Caesar had his image stamped on his coin.
And the inscription read “Tiberius Caesar, son of the divine Augustus”.
The coin described the Emperor Caesar as the son of a god!
These coins were so offensive to the Jews that for normal everyday money, other coins were minted.
Other coins without the image or inscription, out of deference to how the Jews felt about them.
But they had to use these coins with the image and inscription, for paying their direct tax to Caesar.
(There were all sorts of taxes to be paid on all sorts of things, but just the direct tax for Caesar needed these special coins with his head and the inscription. So the people had to exchange their ordinary coins for the special ones, and often got ripped off as they did so. Another reason for hating this tax.)
So the Jewish people truly loathed this tax.
But there was a group of them who hated it even more than the rest.
The Pharisees. The Pharisees were an ultra religious group, who said the only king they recognised was God.
And they vehemently opposed Roman occupation and Caesar’s rule.
Most of them opposed Jesus too, as he didn’t obey the minutiae of the Jewish laws like they did.
And because Jesus associated with notoriously bad people.
So the Pharisees didn’t like Jesus. At least that’s what we might have said about them a week or so before the events we’re looking at today. At this stage in the story, now, we might say they hated Jesus!
A few days ago, Jesus had come into Jerusalem riding on a donkey to the acclaim of the crowd – Palm Sunday. In a few days time, he was going to be crucified – Good Friday.
But we’re in the days in between, during which Jesus has upset the Pharisees and other religious leaders repeatedly. He has cleared the temple, saying it was corrupt. He has told parables against them, showing them up for not accepting him as the Messiah sent by God. At the end of the previous chapter of Matthew, we read the chief priests and Pharisees looked for a way to arrest him – they wanted him out of the way!
But they couldn’t because the crowd thought he was a prophet. The crowd loved him.
The Pharisees couldn’t arrest him, so they had another idea: a trick question that would be a trap. A trick question that meant if he gave one answer they could have him arrested for treason. And if he gave the other answer the crowd would turn on him. Either way they’d get rid of him for good. A trap.
Just as the Pharisees plotted to get rid of Jesus, so did the Herodians. The Herodians were a political party who supported Herod’s rule under Rome. They hated Jesus because they were afraid of the political instability he might bring. On Palm Sunday the crowds had been stirred up, thinking he was going to start a revolution to overthrow the Roman occupation. If there was any such trouble, Rome would clamp down on it harshly, and the stake the Herodians had in Herod’s rule, would be gone. Alternatively, if it turned out that Jesus did have the power to overthrow Roman rule, then again, their own power base would go. So the Herodians wanted to get rid of Jesus, like the Pharisees did.
Herodians and Pharisees were usually enemies, but on this occasion they got together to trap Jesus.
So they dreamed up their trick question. They asked, “Is it right to pay taxes to Caesar or not?” This was indeed a trick question. If Jesus said yes, it was right to pay taxes to Caesar, the Pharisees would say he was opposed to God, the only true king. And the crowd would be up in arms, probably stone him, for they hated paying the tax. If Jesus said no it wasn’t right to pay taxes to Caesar, the Herodians would have him charged for rebellion. There had been Jews who’d revolted against Roman rule and taxes before, and faced the death penalty. Saying no would be very dangerous indeed. So Jesus would be in big trouble whatever he said, yes or no. Lose lose. A very clever trick question.
So what does Jesus do? First he lets them know he sees through -their cunning plan. “You hypocrites! Why are you trying to trap me?” He sees straight through them to their motives, and lets them know it. The Pharisees weren’t really motivated by love for God’s laws. The Herodians weren’t really motivated by love of Rome’s justice. They just wanted to trap Jesus.
Then he asks them to show him the coin they use for paying the tax. Which they do. I quote Tom Wright’s description of what happens next:
Jesus takes the coin from them, like someone being handed a dead rat. He looks at it with utter distaste.
”Whose is this... image? And who is it who gives himself an inscription like that?” He’s already shown what he thinks of Caesar, but he hasn’t said anything that could get him into trouble. He has turned the question around, and is ready to throw it back at them.
“Caesar’s” they reply. “Give to Caesar what is Caesar’s and to God what is God’s.” He counters their challenge with a sharp challenge in return. Were they compromised? Had they really given their full allegiance to God? He has outwitted them and they know it. They slink off.
“Give to Caesar what is Caesar’s and to God what is God’s.”
The word translated “give” here, is really more of a “give back” or “give what is owed”. It’s the word used for paying a bill or settling a debt.
So what did Jesus think was owed to Caesar? And what to God?
What did Jesus think was owed to Caesar? Well he recognised that they, and we have a responsibility to give to those who govern, what they legitimately ask for. Responsibility to obey the laws, to pay taxes for the benefits and services we receive. We’re to complete our tax returns honestly, to fulfil our responsibilities as citizens. Our allegiance to God includes our allegiance to the state. They’re not in opposition to one another.
What did Jesus think was owed to God? Later in this very chapter in Matthew, in verse 37, Jesus said to love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul and with all your mind. In other words, love God in every way we can, to the full, in every part of our lives. There’s no separation between the spiritual and the non-spiritual. Remember the reading we had last week, about Jesus healing on the Sabbath? He wouldn’t let doing God’s work be limited in the ways the religious leaders wanted. He wouldn’t let them try to keep God in a box. No, Jesus made it clear that God’s in charge of everything. He’s in charge of ALL of our lives.
So the question is, is He? Is God in charge of every aspect of our lives?...
Is he in charge of our jobs? Of what work we do, and how we do it? Whether we work for a company, or someone else, are self employed, or work at keeping our home or family running. Are we honest at work? Do we work hard, do our best? Are we a pleasure to work with? What is there in our working life that needs to be brought under God’s control?...
Is God in charge of our relationships? Are there relationships where we habitually lose our temper, get violent, or take advantage, or lack humility or compassion?... Are our sexual relationships under God’s control, or are we doing the wrong things with the wrong people, or with pornography? What is there in our relationships that needs to be brought under God’s control?...
Is God in charge of our time? Do we resent the demands other people make on our time? How little time we have to ourselves or to relax? Or maybe the opposite: do we waste too much time on our own pleasure, rather selfishly? Maybe we think we deserve it – back to Cameron’s sermon of two weeks ago about wrongly thinking we have ‘entitlements’ before God. We don’t. What is there in how we spend our time that needs to be brought under God’s control?...
Is God in charge of our money? Are we generous givers? Or do we spend too much on ourselves? Money is a big issue right now, isn’t it with the financial crisis looking to affect all of us in one way or another, bigger bills to pay and maybe worse. But is God in charge of how we spend or save or give away money? What is there in how we spend our money that needs to be brought under his control?...
Give to Caesar what is Caesar’s, and God what is God’s. ALL of lives need to be brought under God’s control. A few days after this episode with the Roman coin, Jesus was killed. He gave up his life, for us. And we’re about to celebrate, yes celebrate! in Holy Communion, the fact that by his death on the cross, we are forgiven. He literally gave everything for us, and so we owe him everything. Our lives, our jobs, our relationships, our time, our money, our homes, literally everything!
We can’t fool or trick God any more than the Pharisees and Herodians could trick Jesus. He knew their real motives, and God knows ours. God knows exactly what we’re up to. He knows where he’s in charge and where he’s not. And his forgiveness, his grace, and his love are ready and waiting, available, to welcome us as we come and bring our whole lives under his control. So shall we do that?
Then let’s pray...
posted by Parish Administrator at 1:01 pm
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
<< Home